Assignments

English 1101 English Composition I, Fall 2023

Section 08: TR 9:30-10:45 a.m., Arts & Sciences 368

Section 09: TR 11:00-12:15 p.m., Arts & Sciences 368

In Class Activities

1. Summarizing and Reflecting

Today, we're going to practice summarizing an article's main ideas. First divide into small groups of 4 or 5 and elect a secretary to record your disussion to share with the larger class. Then, your group will be assigned a text, either Anzaldúa or Nussbaum's article. Respond to the following issues:

  1. As Graff and Birkenstein recommend, put yourself in the author's shoes. Where is she coming from? What is her world view? What is she advocating. Feel free to use Graff and Birkstein's templates on page 42 to aide your summary.
  2. Next, select two or three passages that best represent the author's argument and/or experience, and explain them.
  3. Finally, where are you coming from with regard to the topic? What is your reaction to the argument? What is your experience of the issue? After reading and discussing the article, where are your thoughts headed regarding the topic?

2. Organizing the Personal Reflection Paper

You've brainstormed the personal reflection paper in informal writing. Today, let's get some feedback on your topic and how to organize. Divide into groups of two or three and respond to the following questions for each of group member's paper topic.

1. Is the topic sufficient for a 4-5 page essay?

2. What kinds of details or evidence do you expect to see in the writer's essay? What should the essay include and cover?

3. What are some effective ways that the reflection essay could be organized?

3. Summarizing and Objecting

Today, let's practice not only summarizing a text but also being skeptical of the text by breaking into small groups to discuss specific sections of Christine de Pizan's and Niccolò Machiavelli's arguments regarding monarchical rule. Groups will then share their thoughts with the rest of the class.

Here are the groups:

  1. Christine de Pizan, 16. The Fifth Teaching of Prudence, which Is How the Wise Princess Will Try Her Best to Be in Favour with, and Have the Good Wishes of, All Classes of Her Subjects
  2. Christine de Pizan, 18. The Seventh Teaching Describes How the Wise Princess Will Keep a Careful Eye on Her Revenues and Finances and on the State of Her Court
  3. Christine de Pizan, 19. How the Wise Princess Ought to Extend Largesse and Liberality
  4. Niccolò Machiavelli, Chapter XV Concerning Things for which Men, and Especially Princes, Are Praised or Blamed
  5. Niccolò Machiavelli, Chapter XVI Concerning Liberality and Meanness
  6. Niccolò Machiavelli, Chapter XVII Concerning Cruelty and Clemency, and Whether It Is Better to Be Loved than Feared
  7. Niccolò Machiavelli, Chapter XVIII Concerning the Way in Which Princes Should Keep Faith

Here are the questions:

 

1. Summarize the key claim in the chapter.

2. Select and explain the quotation that best illustrates the chapter's overall idea.

3. Discuss objections you might have to the author's ideas in general and the chapter in particular.

4. "My Dear Fellow Clergymen"

Today let's evaluate an author's position and define our own position regarding an idea by breaking into groups to work through King's and Tutu's ideas.

 

King groups should discuss the following questions:

Tutu groups should discuss the following questions:

5. Reviewing the Templates

In preparation for Paper 2 Summary and Evaluation, let's review and practice Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein's They Say/I Say templates. Spend approximately 5-10 minutes applying your assigned template to your assigned article from today's reading. Note that your actual Paper 2 Summary and Evaluation will not incorporate all of these formulas, but you will find many of them helpful.

  1. "The Law Code of Manu" (Austin 380-4) and "They Say" (Graff 19-31): Start with what others are saying (in the upcoming Summary and Evaluation paper, this will be the author of the article.)
  2. "The Law Code of Manu" (Austin 380-4) and "Her Point Is" (Graff 32-46): Fairly summarize the essay's thesis, line of argument, and big idea(s).
  3. "The Law Code of Manu" (Austin 380-4) and "As He Himself Puts It" (Graff 47-56): Do not just summarize the essay, quote the essay to illustrate your understanding and create authority. (Next week, we'll discuss MLA style quoting.)
  4. "The Law Code of Manu" (Austin 380-4) and "Yes / No / Okay, But" (Graff 57-71): Respond to what in the text you agree with, what you don't agree with, and what you question.
  5. "The Law Code of Manu" (Austin 380-4) and "And Yet" (Graff 72-81): Distinguish your main idea from the essay's main idea.
  6. "The Law Code of Manu" (Austin 380-4) and "Skeptics May Object" (Graff 82-95): Articulate your objections to the idea.
  7. "The Law Code of Manu" (Austin 380-4) and "So What? Who Cares?" (Graff 96-106): Argue why the essay's ideas matter and/or don't matter.
  8. "The Law Code of Manu" (Austin 380-4) and "You Mean I Can Just Say It That Way?" (Graff 123-37): Translate the argument into your own, colloquial words.
  9. Epictetus, "To Those Who Fear Want" and "They Say" (Graff 19-31): Start with what others are saying (in the upcoming Summary and Evaluation paper, this will be the author of the article.)
  10. Epictetus, "To Those Who Fear Want" and "Her Point Is" (Graff 32-46): Fairly summarize the essay's thesis, line of argument, and big idea(s).
  11. Epictetus, "To Those Who Fear Want" and "As He Himself Puts It" (Graff 47-56): Do not just summarize the essay, quote the essay to illustrate your understanding and create authority. (Next week, we'll discuss MLA style quoting.)
  12. Epictetus, "To Those Who Fear Want" and "Yes / No / Okay, But" (Graff 57-71): Respond to what in the text you agree with, what you don't agree with, and what you question.
  13. Epictetus, "To Those Who Fear Want" and "And Yet" (Graff 72-81): Distinguish your main idea from the essay's main idea.
  14. Epictetus, "To Those Who Fear Want" and "Skeptics May Object" (Graff 82-95): Articulate your objections to the idea.
  15. Epictetus, "To Those Who Fear Want" and "So What? Who Cares?" (Graff 96-106): Argue why the essay's ideas matter and/or don't matter.
  16. Epictetus, "To Those Who Fear Want" and "You Mean I Can Just Say It That Way?" (Graff 123-37): Translate the argument into your own, colloquial words.

6. Brainstorming the Analysis and Argument Paper

Today, let's work through the key concepts of the day's articles, as well as provide feedback on paper topics, by dividing into groups and discussing the following issues. When we return to large class discussion, each group will share their responses to the article as well as their paper topics.

  1. First, describe the main idea of your group's assigned article: Jeremy Bentham's principle of utility or Martin Buber's existential I-Thou.
  2. Next, brainstorm ways in which you see that idea functioning (or not) in American culture and society.
  3. Finally, give each other feedback on your topics for Paper 3 Analysis and Argument.

7. Reviewing the Ethical Principles

For our final day of discussion of Reading the World, let's draw out the key ideas from Bloom and Adichie and review the ethical principles.

  1. Define and describe the ethical principle underlying your assigned author's work (Bloom's Against Empathy or Adichie's "Dear Ijeawele.")
  2. Next, review the ethical principles espoused by Confucious, The Quran, Shantideva, Smith, Bentham, and Buber. Of the ethical princples studied in this class, which do you prefer and why?
  3. Finally, if time permits, give each other feedback on your working outline for Paper 3 Analysis and Argument.

Informal Writing

1. Summary and Response

Choose either Anzaldúa or Nussbaum and write a page (double-spaced, 12pt Times New Roman font, 1" margins) quoting and summarizing the essay's thesis, argument, and main points. Then, write a page responding to the essay: How do the essay's ideas apply or not apply to your life? What is the function of language in your life, culture, and identity? What do you think the purpose of education is—economic development or democracy—and why? What connections can you make between the essay and your own life?

2. Brainstorming the Personal Reflection Paper

The first eight readings from Reading the World discuss education and human nature intellectually, emotionally, morally, and culturally. For the first formal paper, you will reflect upon an important issue in your life. For the second informal writing assignment, simply brainstorm topics and freewrite about them for two pages. What are some subjects that have personally affected you and how so? What important issue has transformed your intellectual, emotional, moral, or cultural world view? What has a significant experience in your life taught you about yourself, about human nature?

3. The Significance of Debates

Today, let's practice not only summarizing a debate and evaluating an argument but also exploring why the debate matters in an in class informal writing activity. Count off by one and two. Ones will respond to Madison's article while Twos will respond to Al-Hakim's.

If you have a laptop, you can write the response electronically and submit to GeorgiaVIEW > Course Work > Assignments > Informal Writing 3. If you don't have a computer, then you can write on paper and submit it at the end of class.

4. Reviewing the Main Ideas

In order to determine the topic for the summary and evaluation paper on an article from Reading the World, you will first browse all the articles we've read and select four to six you are interested in writing about. Then, spend one paragraph per article summarizing the main idea of the article and freewriting about why you agree or disagree with that idea; the four to six paragraphs should total approximately two pages.

Peer Response

Goals

The dual goals of this course are for you to critically read and analytically write about ideas in a variety of manners. Informal writing allows you to engage ideas and practice writing about concepts; and formal papers allow you to create well-structured and supported arguments about significant ideas. Peer response sessions extend the reading and writing process by allowing you and your peers to engage in direct oral and written dialogue about matters of composition and argumentation, with the ultimate goal of improving your formal papers. You have the opportunity to revise two formal papers based upon comments by your peers and professor. You will provide constructive criticism to two or three other members of the class as will they to you.

 

Note: If a group member does not submit her paper in docx or rtf format at least two days before the peer response session, the rest of the group is not responsible for responding to her paper.

Paper 2 Summary and Evaluation Peer Response Process

  1. Writers upload their papers to both GeorgiaVIEW > Course Work > Assignments > Paper 2 Summary and Evaluation and GeorgiaVIEW > Discussions > Paper 2 Peer Group # on Thursday, October 12.
  2. Each group member reads fellow group members papers, completes a peer response sheet for each paper, and submits the peer response sheets to GeorgiaVIEW > Discussions > Paper 2 Peer Group # by the start of the peer response class.
  3. We will not be holding regular class during the peer response sessions. You need only attend class during your group's scheduled date and time, see below.
  4. For the peer response session, either bring your laptop or bring paper print outs of the papers. Spend approximately 15 minutes sharing constructive feedback on each of the writer's papers. First, peers go around the circle noting MLA or recurrent grammar issues. Second, peers comment on the thesis. Third, peers comment on the argument. Fourth, peers comment on the organization. If there is time, peers comment on voice, successes and weaknesses, and quality and creativity.

Paper 2 Summary and Evaluation Peer Response Groups

9:30 a.m. Section

11:00 a.m. Section

Paper 3 Argument and Analysis Peer Response Process

  1. Writers upload their papers to both GeorgiaVIEW > Course Work > Assignments > Paper 3 Summary and Evaluation and GeorgiaVIEW > Discussions > Paper 3 Peer Group # on Tuesday, November 14.
  2. Each group member reads fellow group members papers, completes a peer response sheet for each paper, and submits the peer response sheets to GeorgiaVIEW > Discussions > Paper 3 Peer Group # by the start of the peer response class.
  3. For the peer response session, either bring your laptop or bring paper print outs of the papers. Spend approximately 15 minutes sharing constructive feedback on each of the writer's papers. First, peers go around the circle noting MLA or recurrent grammar issues. Second, peers comment on the thesis. Third, peers comment on the argument. Fourth, peers comment on the organization. If there is time, peers comment on voice, successes and weaknesses, and quality and creativity.

Paper 3 Analysis and Argument Peer Response Groups

9:30 a.m. Section

11:00 a.m. Section

Paper 1 Personal Reflection

We have been reading about education and human nature during the first month of class. In the first formal paper, reflect upon either your own adolescence and emerging adulthood or your experience-based understanding of human nature and then compose a five page paper that explores an issue that was and may still be crucial in your formative experience. Here are some questions that may help you brainstorm a topic (note that you may use an article in the book to help you write the paper but you are not required to use an article in the book to support your reflection):

Choose one issue that has deeply affected your identity and world view, either intellectually, emotionally, morally, or culturally; and then analyze how it functioned in your life. Your personal and self-analytical reflective narrative essay should break the issue down in order to reveal its complex operations. Your paper should have a controlling idea, be well-organized, provide specific details to support its analytical claims, and follow the rules of standard written English.

Paper 2 Summary and Evaluation

In the first paper, you analyzed a significant issue that affected your world view. In the second paper, you will engage one article from Reading the World from Weeks 1-7 on syllabus schedule. You will fairly and accurately summarize the selected text and then evaluate it; you will both appreciate and interrogate it; you will articulate the work's idea and then provide your own perspective. If, upon evaluating and interrogating the essay's argument, you agree with it, you should extend it with your own evidence and points. If you disagree with it, you should refute it with your own counter-argument and counter-evidence. Use Gerald Graff's They Say/I Say templates to help you rhetorically frame what the text says as well as articulate your say. The following bullet points define what your paper should accomplish; they are not intended as an organizational guide.

Paper 3 Analysis and Argument

In the first paper, Self, you analyzed how an issue or event affected your self, changed your view of the world. In the second paper, Self and Text, you summarized and evaluated an essay read in class. In this 4-5 page dialogue between Text and World, you will summarize how one issue is ideally theorized in one article from Reading the World and analyze and argue how you see that topic really functioning in America today with the help of at least two scholarly publications (scholarly journal articles, book chapters, and books obtained through university library research; in addition to the two scholarly sources you may use high quality general interest publications). For example, you could briefly summarize Nussbaum's "Education for Profit, Education for Democracy," and then analyze the decline of arts and the rise of vocationalism in public education with the help of two scholarly journal articles or book chapters, and argue how this is affecting American democracy. Or you could explain King's "Letter from Birmingham Jail" and analyze non-violent protest in American since the WTO Protests in 1999, arguing the effectiveness of and/or governmental response to civil disobedience in contemporary America. What does the Text say about the issue, and how does the (American) World respond?

Paper 4 Research Project

In the first paper, you reflected upon an issue important to your Self by analyzing your own experiences as evidence. In the second, you summarized and evaluated the key idea from a Text by explicating and questioning the textual evidence itself. In the third, you analyzed how an idea from a Text should ideally work and argued how it really functions in America today by using your knowledge of American society as well as supplemental scholarly research. In this research project demonstrating the full dialectic of Self, Text, and World, self-selected groups of three or four will select any global topic broached by the course texts, research that issue more deeply and more contemporaneously with the support of at least at least 6 scholarly sources per group member (at least 2 scholarly journal articles and at least 2 books/book chapters per group member) for a total of 18-24 sources found outside the course reading list. In order to practice teamwork and presentation skills, you will then present your group findings and own analysis of the topic to the class in a 20-25 minute multimedia presentation with 5 minute question and answer period (students in the class will be responsible for asking questions). In order to learn how to share research not only in oral but also written formats, you, each group member will compose a 6-8 page research paper integrating at least 6 scholarly sources, defining their individual (as opposed to group's) analysis of the situation, and arguing their position for the world. For instance, a group interested in the contemporary issue of global poverty could research the government's obligations, nonprofit charities' actions, private industries' duties, and the impoverished themselves; and individual members could focus their papers on just one of those subtopics. Although the final paper will not be drafted and revised, you will receive feedback at multiple stages of the project: you will receive feedback on your topic and analysis from within your group, you will receive feedback on your topic and research sources from your professor, you will receive feedback on your presentation from your peers and professor. Furthermore, the act of writing the audiovisual presentation is like outlining your formal paper; you will learn to disseminate research analysis and argument in both oral and written forms.

Timeline

Date

Due

November 7

choose groups

November 14

choose topic

November 16

18-24 source bibliography and

plan of action

November 21

groups 1-3: conferences

November 28

groups 4-6: conferences

November 30

groups 1-2: presentations

December 5

groups 3-4: presentations

December 7

groups 5-6: presentations

December 12

11:00 section: paper 4

December 14

9:30 section: paper 4

A. Group Selection

Due Tuesday, November 7: Self-select your three-four member groups. Sign up here.

B. Topic Selection

Due Tuesday, November 14: Groups will finalize a topic. One member submits the topic to GeorgiaVIEW > Course Work > Assignments > Group Presentation by the end of class.

C. Bibliography and Plan of Action

Due Thursday, November 16. The first step in a group project is developing a group plan; and the first step in a research project is compiling potential sources. Groups will

Groups will be given class time to complete the document, and one member will submit the plan and bibliography in one docx or rtf document to GeorgiaVIEW > Assignments > Group Presentation by the end of class. Use the Composition Research Methods handout to help you navigate GCSU's Library Databases. Use the MLA Style handout (especially 3.1.1 A Book by a Single Author, 3.1.7 A Book or Book Chapter in a Library Database, anbd 3.2.4 A Periodical Publication in a Library Database) for the basic Works Cited entries. This part of the research project is ungraded and designed for your instructor to give you feedback on your research strategy and sources.

D. Conferences

In order to receive instructor feedback on their research-in-progress, groups will meet with the professor on the dates below to discuss the parts of their presentation, and individual group members will share their individual research paper's working theses and research questions.

 

Tuesday, 11-21

Group 1

Group 2

Group 3

Thursday, 11-28

Group 4

Group 5

Group 6

E. Group Presentation

Due on the dates below, groups will present their findings and analysis of the topic to the class in a 20-25 minute multimedia presentation (such as Powerpoint or Prezi) with 5 minute question and answer period.

 

Your presentation will be assessed on organization and unity (how well the parts come together to make a coherent whole), analysis (how well the issue is examined), participation (how well individual members contribute to the speech), and length. Individual presentation performance in the group presentation will factor into the individual research project grade.

 

Thursday, 11-30

Group 1

Group 2

Tuesday, 12-5

Group 3

Group 4

Thursday, 12-7

Group 5

Group 6

F. Project Assessment

Each group member is responsible for staying connected with the group, attending meetings, actively participating in meetings, doing their delegated work, i.e., contributing their fair share to the project. In order to hold individual members accountable in a team project, on the day of the group presentation, each group member should individually compose and submit to GeorgiaVIEW > Course Work > Assignments > Group Presentation - Individual Evaluation on a statement that 1) assesses their own performance, 2) assesses their peers' service to the assignment, and 3) assesses the structure and process of the research project as a whole. Note that the group presentation is one component of the individual research project grade.

G. Individual Research Paper

 

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